okay but like everyone saying that the title of Tears of the Kingdom is referencing all the trauma Hyrule has faced from the demise cycle n stuff make some real interesting points, but I don’t think that’s what the title is referencing at all.
Pretty much all Zelda titles have been pretty literal in some way, like ocarina of time references the physical ocarina of time, majora’s mask references an actual mask called majora, the wind waker the wind waker, four sword four sword, twilight princess the princess of twilight, spirit tracks has trains, skyward sword a skyward sword etc etc even Breath of the Wild is referencing the massive open world + freedom of movement which constitutes the main gimmick of the game. There are very few if any exceptions to this. They all reference a defining feature of the game, something concrete about the game that separates it from the others. Referencing the reoccurring trauma of hyrule...doesn’t really fit this bill, I think. It’s too vague, and applicable to pretty much any other zelda game.
I would wager that the tears reference a specific defining element of the game, something specific about the story or gameplay. In other words, I don’t think the tears are going to be a metaphor for something, like sadness or the longterm destruction of the kingdom, but rather actual physical tears.
I have three main ideas of how this could manifest:
1. We’re gonna get more sheikah lore.
It would make sense considering how much more they were elaborated on in botw. In fact, not only did botw provide pretty much the vast majority of the canon lore about the sheikah as of now, but it implemented many ideas that could definitely be elaborated on, such as the sheikah monks, the ancient technology, and the yiga clan. Especially considering how tears of the kingdom was originally supposed to be botw dlc but got too big for that, it makes sense that elaborating on some of these things would be the natural first step to build off of in tears of the kingdom.
But how does this connect to the title? The sheikah are the shadow folk who for generations served the hylian royal family. However, their symbol is an eye with a tear drop coming from it. I don’t think it is so absurd to imply that the sheikah themselves might be the tears of the kingdom.
considering how sheikah-centric botw was, I don’t think it’s too much of a leap to consider that tears of the kingdom would plunge even further into the lore behind them. And if the title isn’t referencing the sheikah themselves, it could still be referencing one of their technologies, such as...idk...
The TEAR DROP THING THAT UPGRADES THE SHEIKAH SLATE.
Like,,,, what is this magic goop stuff that powers all the sheikah technology??? WHAT IS IT??? and like IT’S A LITERAL MAGIC TEAR, I would not put it past nintendo at all to go “actually wait a minute what is this glowy blue shit, let’s make a dlc about that oops it got too elaborate”
which leads to my next proposition (which sort of connects to this one)
2. It’s drawing from those segments of Skyward Sword and Twilight Princess where link had to collect tears
many people have already proposed this but I haven’t really seen it connected to the first point I made yet so I’m proposing this anyway. So like, magic tears are not a new concept to zelda at all and there are probably many instances I’m forgetting of like random collectibles and potions but the two most prominent instances are in Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword where link is given a vessel to collect divine tears
and these vessels look miiiighty similar to
this thing link has on his hip that replaces the sheikah slate...
now, as I said I am far from the first person to notice this or even connect the title to the sheikah and I am sure someone else has made this connection before but I don’t care because I’m just having fun lol but like
this new vessel could be collecting something that is or is similar to the blue liquid powering sheikah tech, maybe even some kind of substance that predates it that was later turned into the blue sheikah goo (especially considering the prevalence of zonai symbology, and considering they were strong magic weilders, maybe the sheikah tech goo was based off of magic zonai goo??) but idk I’m just saying shit now.
But I think this is especially plausible considering just how much botw pulled from skyward sword, with the stamina mechanic and the glider basically being a souped up sailcloth, and now with tears of the kingdom straight up having souped up skyloft...it would make sense that the zelda team might also revisit the tear collecting mechanic and soup it up. But like what do I know because
3. In all honesty it’s entirely likely that there is no way to predict what the title means.
Yes, nintendo did say the title would contain spoilers, which would imply that it is possible to extrapolate something important about the game from it. However, the legend of zelda also has a habit of not giving two shits about precedence and going in whatever wild direction it wants regardless of what it has done or established before. Honestly, I think that’s one of the series traits that makes it so amazing, but it also makes it incredibly difficult if not near impossible to predict anything about its future. Like, back in the ocarina of time days, no one would have guessed that one day link would turn into a wolf, ride a talking boat, or fly on an enormous red bird. There was absolutely no precedence set for that lmao.
So while I am confident in my theory that the title refers to something physical that pertains to the specific game rather than something that connects all the games, as well as the likelihood that physical thing connects to the sheikah (+ by extension maybe also the zonai?) and their technology goo, and that the game is likely taking inspo from the tears collection mechanic from skyward sword and twilight princess, I have absolutely NO DOUBT that even if all of that turns out to be true, nintendo is going to do something really wierd and unexpected from there and it will be near impossible to guess what. And honestly? I wouldn’t have it any other way.
(it also means my theory that link’s new glowy blue hand talks, has a personality, and has a personal, paper-related, vendetta is still on the table)
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seeing deviantart being bullied and burnt was genuinely pretty fucking funny. deviantart has been disappointing for a long while, and even more disappointing when it switched to eclipse. even during my times on the older layout, i still had some beefs with deviantart. but eclipse, and now this update - no matter if they've reupdated their update to tame the people holding the torches - has completely ruined deviantart for me.
to me, deviantart has been ruined for a while. to uncensored fetish art, to the annoying lack of care to people without core (even when i had core), to deviantart doing a "deviantart protection" tool for only core members & more. and then eclipse. as someone who was on deviantart for few years, i can surely say that DA has been dead (half exaggeration) for a while - the impact the eclipse had on the userbase was surely surreal. the amounts of viewers and faves that had drop on many people's artwork. the amounts of groups that has been inactive or extremely slow with letting others post submissions after a folder limit, to the point specific fanart would be harder to gain traction because of the specific fandom groups being dead/semi-active.
deviantart has been so close to tripping over the edge, and you can desperately see its trying to stand straight. it stings my heart. but not only because i hold some emotional attachment to the website, but because social media has been hitting their artists with a spikey bat for a long time. we can't just forget to mention that deviantart is just that one website.
there's a big key that makes its presence so unique to the point it can be hard to let go: professionals or hobbyists, artists with different skill levels, fanarts or original artists, many artists making simple-detailed or extremely-detailed art -- deviantart offered more opportunities for different types of artists to get popular more than social medias like insta and twitter. pixiv, furaffinity, and more could've easily replaced deviantart, but deviantart had stayed on top (and will continue to stay on top for a while) because its definition of "specific art you need to make for a presence, popularity, money" is more ranged than other websites - and offers more hype for various of artists or various of things to draw.
don't get me wrong, deviantart has its flaws that can fuck up artists as well. deviantart wasn't the perfect fucking heaven for every artist - and it certainly still isn't now. i'm an old user so deviantart could be transitioning to become like any other website right now and is being biased about specific artstyles/art. but i just can't deny deviantart's impact and that deviantart is pretty unique. and i hope one day, an art website that could have more mercy on artists gets launched.
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